Here is a free heart animals pattern for you to use in honor of Valentines Day, which is so close! Of course, these heart animals are for any time of the year really, but are inspired by this love filled holiday.

I picked some of my children’s favorite animals to create: a fox, cat, lamb, owl, and deer. They are an easy sew and if you have scrap fabrics these are a great project to use them on. To create your own heart animals, you will need the following:

Start by cutting out your pattern and using that to cut out the pieces from your chosen materials. The pattern pieces have how many of each you will need to cut. As you can see I used all kinds of stuff I had on hand. I use mostly cottons for the body but did use a linen fabric on the owl. I used acrylic felt mostly for faces and ears, but also used wool felt, fleece, faux leather from a purse I had cut up, and iron on vinyl.

Iron your main heart fabric. If you need to iron felt, I suggest placing fabric on top of it before pressing. Then place the heart face on top middle of a heart body piece and sew in place.

If you are using iron on vinyl, you can iron that on now.

Sew on the nose.

If your animal has ears, place them where you would like them.

Then fold them down and pin in place. Sew very close to the edge just to keep them in place.

Note: If you are making a deer, you will need to pinch the rounded bottom and sew in place.

Now place your eyes on. You can sew on felt circles or embroider eyes if this is for a little one. Other wise, add the safety eyes. Mark where they are to go.

Use a seam ripper to cut just enough of an opening for the eyes to go through. On the back, add some glue around the opening.

Cut a small piece of felt and cut a slit in the middle. Place the eye piece through the felt and let the glue dry this in place. Add the plastic eye backing. Note: I have used safety eyes a lot and find adding the glue and felt helps keep it even more secure.

Next embroider on any features you would like to add such as a mouth, eye lashes, whiskers, etc.

Take the face……

and place the heart back on top, right sides facing, and pin in place. I suggest doing it with the eyes up as it’s easier to sew and remove pins this way.

Sew all around the heart (1/4″ seam allowance, which is included in pattern) except to leave a small opening big enough to turn the heart right side out.

Trim notches around the curves of the heart shape.

Turn right side out and push at seams to make sure it is all out.

Fill the heart animal with stuffing until desired size is achieved.

Hand sew the opening shut.

Now you have a cute little heart animal! I hope you enjoy this free heart animals pattern. Share pics on the Happy Together facebook page or use #happytogetherbyjess on social media to share your creation.

Valentines Day is coming soon and I have been getting supplies ready for my daughters to help them create Valentines for their classmates. My youngest is four and loves stickers so I decided that this would be a nice little goodie for her to give out. I found the cutest stickers in the dollar spot at Target and created a simple valentines free printable to add them too. This is a great opportunity to let a child practice cutting, gluing, and writing if they are at that age.

Begin by cutting out the printables. There are four Valentines on each piece of paper. If you want to do this quicker, you can use a paper cutter.

Once they are all cut out determine the amount of stickers you want to use on them. I had a sticker pad and cut it into pieces that would fit on the card but you can add the stickers however you like.

Put some glue on the middle of the card and then stick on the stickers. I made these so there is enough room to write a “from” name on the bottom and add a “to” name at the top if desired. I find it easier to just make a bunch with only the “from” so my girls can hand them out easily.

I have one more sewing Valentines idea that I will share next week to add to the Valentines ideas here on the blog. Until then, enjoy these! -jess

Any one else have yarn scraps galore? I do and I am trying to use them up, so I decided to create a little hearts crochet pattern to help in that process. I used all types of yarn and ,as you can see, that effects the size of the heart.

These are really easy to crank out and can be used to make garlands, use as present toppers, make hair accessories with, and the list goes on. So why not just sit down one day and make a bunch to have on hand for when needed? I do that with various projects and it always comes in handy when I need a quick little gift for something.

To make your own little hearts you will need:

Yarn (the thinner the yarn the smaller the heart)

Crochet Hook (the smaller the hook the smaller the heart; I used a size F)

Here are the main pattern instructions all together and then below I match them up with the pictures for anyone who would like to see it step by step.

Ch. 4, sl st in 1st ch. to form ring

7 sc’s in ring, sl st in 1st sc

ch. 3, 2 dc’s in same stitch as sl st from step 2

hdc in next sc.

sc in next sc

sc, ch 3, and sc in next sc

sc in next sc

hdc in next sc

2 dc in next sc., ch. 3, sl st in same sc as the dc’s

Fasten off and weave loose ends

Tip: You can tighten the center of the heart by pulling on the beginning yarn strand if desired. I recommend doing any time after you have done the 7 sc’s in the ring. That way you have enough room to make those stitches first.

Bloggers everywhere are creating fun Valentine printables and I wanted to join in on the fun. These are geared more towards grown ups and are not only for Valentines but anytime really. I recently had a book of old stamps given to me. These stamps were ones I used to help my grandfather collect. I remember waiting for the mail to arrive at my grandparents house so I could see what fun stamps might be on it. I loved adding them to the book back then and am now enjoying looking over them all over again now. It makes me miss how most mail used to come with stamps instead of printed postage. I used these stamps as the base for these printables.

I went with four different color schemes and took pictures of them. I then used the sketchbook app on my ipad to fade the photo and write on top of it. I wanted that messy handwriting look for these and chose quotes/sayings that pertained to letters/stamps/mail.

I created a single large download size (6″ x 9″) that can be framed and a page with all four of them (each is 2.5″ x 3.75″) so they can be handed out, tucked onto gifts, etc.

I hope you enjoy these and if you use them, please share using #happytogetherbyjess on social media or sharing on the Happy Together facebook page.

I still have one more thing from Valentine’s week to share before February is over and that is some decorations I did for a conference at church. I always feel very happy when I am able to use my passions to help and bless others, even if it is just in a creating some decorations. Since it was Valentine’s Day and all, I went with more of a girly theme. This type of decor would be great for a wedding. I made a ton of tissue paper flowers and cut out leaves from cardstock, found some frames at a thrift store and spray painted them white, and then learned a few lessons from trying to put this together.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to put nails in the wall, so I tried gluing/tying the frames together to stand upright while leaning on a wall. While that kind of worked, they were so fragile I was afraid it might fall and I didn’t want it to fall on a person or food. Fortunately we had a pallet in our garage I could attach them too that. If I had given myself more time before putting it all together I would have done something to create more contrast between the pallet and the frames/sign, but I am still happy with how it turned out.

The decorations are now waiting to be used at a bridal shower and whatever survives I hope to reuse in some fun way. I love that decorations can be inexpensive and yet look so wonderful!

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